Meet Lauren

“Would I still be the same person if my childhood didn’t consist of wearing a hospital gown and pretending it was a princess dress? If I didn’t ride around on an IV pole for fun? What if I hadn’t had to spend so much time in pain?”

Lauren is a teenager who loves to dance, work out, watch Netflix, camp, hike, and spend time with her friends. But when she was just 18 months old, she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

“My mom noticed that my right eye was bruised,” Lauren tells us. “The pediatrician suggested it was nothing, but my mom insisted on an MRI.”

That MRI revealed a tumor around her right eye, and she was checked into the hospital that same day. Lauren had Stage IV neuroblastoma. The toddler would face a year and a half of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, and procedures.

Her family started to put cancer behind them but then: relapse. Lauren’s chance for a normal childhood was disrupted by a new tumor on her femur, along with bone marrow involvement.

“When I was in treatment, the littlest things put a smile on my face. I used to love those pink princess band-aids,” Lauren remembers.

“Cancer taught me to value every moment to live life to its fullest,” she said. “I learned to look on the bright side - because it could always be worse. I learned to always be kind - because you never know what someone else is going through. My journey taught me to not take anything for granted and to value the life that has been gifted to me.”

In September of 2020, Lauren celebrated 15 years cancer-free!

“Above all, cancer shaped the person that I am very proud to be: a cancer survivor.”

Lauren is a Children’s Cancer Cause 2021 Honorable Mention Scholar. Learn more about our College Scholars Program.